


Seriously?

by chancecraz



Series: Of Queens, Knights, and Pawns [5]
Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Other, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-01-13 02:41:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21236807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chancecraz/pseuds/chancecraz
Summary: Now Leia knows the Force is just screwing with her.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! I know that the latest chapter of Queens is super late, and I'm sorry if I worried anyone. I have been working on it, but I can't seem to focus on it for more than twenty minutes at a time on my writing. This little AU of an AU came about because thearbiterthel on Tumblr asked "So what kind of a clusterfuck would it be if redeemed Vader, TFA Luke and Leia all woke up in Queensverse. Basically what if instead of just Leia, her father and brother time traveled as well." I sat down to write an anwser, and this is what popped out. 
> 
> It's the first time in months I've been able to concentrate on writing for an hour at a time, so I just went with it. I'm throwing it up here, case anyone wants to read it. As always, hope you enjoy.

When Vader did finally come, Leia was forewarned by that cloud of power surrounding him. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise the closer he came. She stood up from the bench, where she had been meditating to steady her mind and chose a position in the center of the room. She wouldn’t cower in the corner this time.

The door opened, and for a moment, Leia forgot every lofty idea and thing she planned as his presence overwhelmed her. Earlier, on the flight deck, she hadn’t been this close to him. And she had been in such a state of shock she hadn’t been paying attention to the details of him. They were coming back to her now. As he descended the stairs and came to meet her she wondered how she could have forgotten that he actually was that tall. It wasn’t just her fear amplifying how he loomed over everyone. His mask, shaped to resemble a death head, with its sharp angles and inky black eyes, was close enough to a face, with an eerie lifeless look, to give anyone nightmares.

Then there was the breathing. That steady and imposing sound that boomed even louder than normal in the small room. The noise of it sent shudders down her spine. She had forgotten, the steady rhythm of it.

Vader said nothing as he came up to her, and the sound of his respirator was momentarily drowned out by the sound of the door thumping closed behind him. Leia flinched at the noise, but it was enough to get her to focus. She had to be here, not then.

Leia straightened her shoulders, reading herself to play this game. Vader was expecting a young nineteen-year-old Princess of Alderaan. He was about to meet battle-hardened General Organa.

Vader made an abrupt gesture with his hand, and Leia braced herself in the Force. Nothing happened to her. The droid floating beside him, let out of a series of beeps, though. And then it powered down. Leia blinked. That was…unexpected.

She was staring at those dimmed lights on the droid in confusion when Vader announced, “I’m not here to harm you.”

Leia’s gaze swung back to Vader, and her mouth dropped open. That had _definitely_ not happened before. “Excuse me?”

“I am not here to harm you.”

Leia could feel herself openly gaping but was unable to pull herself together. “Then why are you here?”

“Because I have need to be,” he intoned mysteriously. “And I need you to be _quiet_. I have to think.”

“Yes,” Leia found herself saying. “Screaming does interfere with that.”

He gave an impatient huff and gestured to the walls of the cell. “If you were wondering, this isn’t a trick, Your Highness, or a trap. The recording devices aren’t on, anything you say in here won’t be recorded.”

Leia was still floundering and trying to figure out why he felt the need to remark on that. “Yes,” she finally managed to sputter. “Because you don’t want any _evidence _of your crimes.”

He sighed. “I know you have no reason to trust me, Your Highness-”

Leia crossed her arms over her chest. He had no _idea_. When she had been nineteen, their interactions had been limited. Unfortunately, that could not be said of her now. She had a lifetime of memories on why not to trust one _word_ this man said. “I wonder why that is,” she remarked in her best imperious tone.

He ignored her petulant tone. “Nevertheless, as unpleasant as it will be for both of us, I need to stay in this cell for a couple of hours. You will not be harmed during that time.” He gestured to the bench. “I suggest you get some rest, and sit down.”

Leia _should_ take this as a win. She should sit down, keep her mouth shut, and thank all the gods that he had decided not to torture her. It’s not like she wanted to _relive_ that particular experience again, but Vader was-no. No, dammit all to hell, not was, _is_. Vader is single-minded in his focus. She needed to know why he had suddenly switched course, and for no reason that she could fathom.

"Why?”

“Because I am trying to buy _time._” His voice held a note of warning in it. This was all he would say on the matter and no more. That wouldn’t have worked on Leia when she was nineteen, and it sure as hell wouldn’t work _now._ Especially since his answer left her more confused than before.

“To do what?”

His hands fell behind his back, and he was silent as he regarded her. Leia just stared back, refusing to give way first. He let out a long sigh of irritation. But in the Force, it was mild feeling, not the depths of rage she knew he was capable of. And since when did Vader feel _anything _besides anger? “You aren’t going to leave this alone, are you?”

Lea snorted. “No.”

“If I tell you, will you be quiet?”

Leia pondered that for a second. “Maybe,” she allowed.

Vader muttered something. It was too low for the vocoder to catch fully, but Leia was fairly certain that the words ‘self-righteous fool’ was in there somewhere.

She didn’t react. It wasn’t very hard, it’s not like she had ever cared what he thought about her.

“Very well,” Vader conceded. “It is not as if there is anyone here for you to tell.”

“Tell what?” Leia asked. “That you’ve lost your mind? That isn’t exactly a secret.”

In the Force, she got the instinctive impression of something lashing out at her, but before she could raise her own shields in response, the feeling faded.

“Tread carefully, Your Highness,” Vader warned darkly, and _there_ was all the remembered menace in his tone. “I don’t want to harm you, it does not mean I _won’t._”

Leia gave herself one second to berate herself for letting her temper control her words. That had been a damn foolish thing for her to say, and she knew it. But his words did raise an interesting question, why was he reluctant to hurt her in the first place? He never had before.

“I need time,” he said through gritted teeth. “and quiet, because I need to come with a plan to destroy this station. “

For the second time in less than two minutes, Leia’s mouth dropped open. “_What?_” she practically howled.

“Oh, you think it’s a good idea for the Emperor to have a weapon that can destroy planets?” he asked her snidely. 

Leia’s temper rose. “Of course not!” she shot back. “But since when do _you_ think that?”

Vader let out a garbled sound. It was a laugh, Leia realized after a moment. A barking, mad sounding one, but a _laugh._

“You would not believe me if I told you,” he said. “But do believe that we have the _same_ goal here. Now, will you let me _think?_”

Leia desperately tried to grab onto something _familiar_. “I sincerely doubt we want the same things.”

Vader said nothing to that. He only turned to start pacing. Was he _ignoring_ her?

His abrupt movement was cut off, though, after he had taken one step and was stopped by the wall. Leia could see him move his shoulders up and down. He must be very agitated if Leia could _see_ what his body was doing underneath all that armor.

Leia sat down on the bench. As much as she wanted to keep needling him, he wasn’t the only person in this room who needed to _think_. From the moment he had stepped into this room, she had done none of that, only reacted to the fact that her worse nightmare was standing not three feet from her.

It took her far longer than she was comfortable with, but she finally got her swirling mind to calm down a bit. At least enough so that she was paying attention to what he was doing, instead of wallowing in her panic. Just because he said he had no interest in hurting her if she remained quiet, didn't mean he wouldn’t change his mind. 

Her eyes tracked him as he made the abortive movement from side to side of the tiny cell. He was again, murmuring under his breath, and Leia couldn't quite make it all out. Just snippets of words here and there. The Emperor and Tarkin repeated several times.

Cautiously she lowered her shields, hoping that in the state he was in, he wouldn’t notice. She normally wouldn’t have dared to take such a risk, but she needed a taste of what he was feeling. Because nothing he was doing made _sense._

Nothing he was feeling did either. It was confusion mostly, with a thread of desperation mixed in. But oddest of all, underneath it all, the feeling of _hope._

Just what in the name of all seven levels of Correllian hell was going on here?

Her thoughts about his mood were scattered to the wind when a name fell from his lips that sent chills down Leia’s spine. “Dantooine.”

Leia came to her feet in an instant, all façade of calm gone. “What did you say?” she demanded.

“Do you selectively not understand Basic?” he demanded, whirling back to face her. “I said, _be_ _quiet._”

Leia took a step forward, “No,” she said. “I want to know what you said.”

His voice was gritted and annoyed. “Dantooine. I said Dantooine.”

Leia swayed and felt all the blood drain from her face. “How do you know that planet?”

“Does it matter?” he asked back, hands coming to his hips. “The rebels had a base there once. It will work.”

“Of course, it matters!” Leia howled. “There is no way that you can _possibly_ know that name.”

“I can, and I do,” he shot back. “And that is what I am going to use.”

“Use?” Leia found her voice was coming from very far away. A horrible suspicion was blooming in the back of her mind.

“Yes, I will tell Tarkin that you revealed the Rebel base is on Dantooine. And while he is busy chasing after phantoms, it will buy me the time to sabotage this mechanical monstrosity, and get you _off_ this station.”

He had never cared about her existence unless she had something he wanted. The first time, for the location of the Rebel Base. The second time, as bait.

For _Luke._

Leia could barely get the words out. “Why would you care what happens to me?”

“I don’t,” he said tonelessly. “But, someone else _does._”

Leia could only stare at him in mute horror. And like a rushing waterfall, all the clues that had been there since he had entered the room came flooding into her mind. His restraint in handling her, his sudden shifts in allegiance, the startling absence of the Dark Side since he entered this room. It was Vader standing in front of her. But just like Leia herself, it wasn’t the one who belonged in _this_ time.

Then her anger came rushing up to replace her horror. Once again, she had been reduced to some pawn in the game he was playing with the galaxy. Once again, she had been overlooked.

“This is about _Luke_???” she screeched.

Vader startled at that name, and then stilled to almost motionlessness. “Your Highness?” he asked, in a very deadly voice, but Leia was too pissed to care.

“You’re saving me because he loves me?” She didn’t give him time to answer. “He hasn’t even _met_ me yet!!!!”

He took a step forward. “How do you know what I would or would not do?” he demanded, implied death stalking every word. “And how do you know that name?”

Leia threw her hands up and let out a bitter laugh. “Who _else_ could it have been? It’s _always_ been about Luke with you. No matter who else was standing right in front of you.” She gestured to herself. “Who you’ve should have _noticed_. Hell, even miraculously resurrected from the dead, your first thought isn’t about how it came to be? No, it’s about making things better for _him_. Have you _no_ concern for your other child?”

Vader came stalking up to her and leaned forward so that his mask almost touched her face. “How did you know about her?” he demanded.

Leia found the words refusing to come, as she boggled at his sheer _stupidity._

“Answer me,” he demanded, and he was so close to her face, that Leia could almost make out the shadow of his eyes behind those red-tinted lenses. “Where is my daughter?”

Leia froze for a moment, at his abrupt closeness, as her mind tried to drag her back to the last time she had found herself in this position. Then his question registered. She found herself letting out a hysterical giggle. “Are you _kidding _me?” she wheezed out.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “WHERE?” he demanded.

Leia didn’t think, only reacted. Without the slightest effort, the Force was _there_, singing in her veins, and she grabbed as much power of it as she could, and shoved it into her hands as she pushed him away from her.

Vader let out a startled, “Oomph!” as he slid across the floor. He used the Force to keep himself upright, but he couldn’t stop the power of his slide. He careened into the opposite wall and hit it with a hard thunk.

Leia stood there, panting, as his head came up, those lifeless lenses fixed on her. Waves of amazement were rolling off of him. Leia wasn’t sure if it was because he was surprised that she managed to do that, or it finally sunk into his thick head who she _was_.

And into that tense silence between the two of them, the Force started vibrating with one word.

“_LEIA!!!!!!”_

At another time, Leia would have flinched at the intensity of that emotion, but that time was not now. Even here, being threatened by Vader, and feeling like Luke had just doused her in an ice-cold bath with that scream, all Leia could feel was an overwhelming joy.

_“Luke?”_ she asked, disbelieving, and in her peripheral vision, she saw Vader’s head snap up at that name. There was something wrong about that, but Leia’s mind was too wrapped up in her brother to put together what it was.

_“Yes, it’s me,” _his voice was as clear as if he was standing right next to her. Nineteen-year-old Luke wouldn’t have been able to do that. But fifty-three-year-old Luke? Oh yes. Hell, he was the one who taught _her._

_“LUKE!!!” _she screamed back. Vader let out a grunt of pain, but Leia was too busy embracing the presence of her brother to notice.

Oh, she had _missed_ him. His stubbornness, his kindness, his soft smiles, and his strength. She had been trying to keep herself steady for so long, the sheer relief she felt at falling and having him there to catch her was immeasurable.

“_I’m not alone anymore. I’m not alone anymore_,” was the thrumming thought her mind, in time with their shared heartbeats.

“_I was only alone because he left,_” a petulant part of her pointed out. And just why was he getting in touch with her now? Not earlier, when she had first called out to him?

Leia withdrew a bit from their connection in the Force. She didn’t want to catch the backlash of what she was about to unleash. “_WHY DIDN'T YOU ANSWER ME THE FIRST TIME?” _she screeched, allowing ever fear and worry she had since waking up in that shuttle pound with her words.

She could _feel_ him flinch, and shame and embarrassment filled the link between them.

_“I thought this was a dream,”_ he said, voice sheepish.

_“A dream?_” she asked, anger forgotten for a moment at the sheer lunacy of that answer. He had to have felt the realness of everything around them, the same as she did. Hell, even the _Force_ felt different in this time. Then the anger was back. “_Of all the stupid, stubborn, hard-headed-” _

Luke cut her off, and because she could feel the panic underneath the question, she let him. “_Leia, are you safe?_”

Well, she would let him ask it. She hadn’t said anything about letting the sheer inanity of that question slid her by._ “Oh, yes. I’m frolicking through a beautiful meadow right now,” _she informed him in the most saccharine voice she could muster.

Beside her, Vader gave out a sound something that sounded like a snort, but Leia was too caught up in Luke’s surprise to pay him much mind.

_“Really?” _

Oh, he was too _easy_ sometimes. _“Of course not!!”_ she yelled at him, not bothering to tone her volume down. _“I’m on the Death Star, Luke! Again!” _

For a second, Luke was a blank slate to her, and then his mind whirled, and she could feel his resolve tighten up, and plan after plan forming in his mind. 

_“Sit tight. I’ll get-” _

_“Don’t bother,” _a new voice said.

Leia started. In her joy in reuniting with Luke, she had forgotten to focus on talking to _only_ him. Panic filled her mind at what she might have inadvertently revealed to another Force user.

There was a long moment’s pause from Luke. Then a shy, almost hopeful_ “Father????” _

That did not, in any way, reassure Leia. What could she have inadvertently revealed to him, while she was communicating with Luke? Blood ties made the connections between Force Sensitives stronger. She _knew_ that.

Also, that voice belonged to _Vader_? It sounded _nothing_ like him.

There was a touch at her shoulder, there and gone in an instant. She focused on the physical world, expecting to see Vader hovering over her. Instead, he was backing himself into the corner of the cell. The one that was the farthest away from her. His movements were slow and deliberate, but Leia was too raw from the whiplash of emotions she had been experiencing over the last few hours. She flinched over the fact that she was in a room that contained a _living_ Vader before she could control herself.

Luke caught that emotion, and he demanded._ “What’s wrong?”_ Leia could feel his anger, usually so slow to get going, nipping at every word.

“_Vader’s here,_” she sent back.

“_I know that, Leia,_” Luke sounded testy. _“He just called out to us, and that is going to be fun to explain why I am calling him-“_

Leia cut him off._ “I mean Vader is _here,_ Luke. As in, he is standing not three feet away from me, in my cell on the Death Star.” _As Leia watched, Vader slowly rose both hands up. The universal gesture to show he was unarmed and meant no harm. What a joke that was, he had already done as much harm to her as someone could possibly do to another, and not kill them. _“And if we go by the fact that he already revealed he knows who you are, I’d say we aren’t the only ones who time-traveled.”_

Luke’s mental voice was very faint. _“Oh.” _Leia could feel him scrambling to process all of this at once. “_Do we know which Vader it is?” _Leia could feel Luke’s worry and fear, mixed with a desperate kind of hope.

_“The one who remembers dying,” _Vader said, voice surprisingly hesitant for him. “_I closed my eyes on one Death Star, and woke up in my life support pod on another.” _

_“Yeah, me too,” _Luke sighed.

_“YOU DIED!” _Vader roared, and it was Leia’s turn to flinch away from being battered by too many emotions.

_“No,”_ Luke said very quickly. _“I did _not _die. I was very much alive. I meant, I closed my eyes, fell asleep, and I woke up here.”_

Leia could feel Vader reigning himself in. It took several long moments, but he did do it. Then that mask turned to look at her expectantly. Leia said nothing, merely crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to answer his unspoken question.

_“Leia?”_ Luke asked, finally.

_“Same,”_ she told Luke. _“I went to sleep, and I woke up in the shuttle bringing me the Death Star.”_

_“And where exactly is _here, _Luke?” _Vader asked darkly.

_“Tatooine,” _Luke admitted.

_“Of course, is it,” _Vader sounded resigned more than anything else_. “Get Obi-Wan and stay there. I will come-”_

_“No,” _Luke cut him off._ “I need to get off this planet. _Now._” _He sounded desperate. But it had been years since Luke had been frightened for himself. But he had never gotten rid of his fear when his loved ones were in danger. Mastered it, but never was not affected by it.

It suddenly occurred to Leia, that once he accepted where he was, Luke would be just as fast-acting to change the past as she planned on being.

Leia stood up straight._ “What happened?” _

_“There is a garrison of dead stormtroopers at the farm,” _Luke said._ “But Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are _safe._”_

Leia let out a sigh of relief at that news. Now all they had to do was keep her parents alive and Alderaan safe, and she would be able to reunite all the pieces of her family. And Owen and Beru _were_ her family. She just hadn’t met them yet. But she could see the people they had been in Luke, and that was enough for her. 

_“Not every member of your family,”_ a snide voice reminded her.

She shoved it aside. Han _wasn’t_ dead here, and she could fix that too.

_“You’re right,”_ Vader admitted. “_It would take me too long to get there._ _You worry about getting off Tatooine. I will see to getting Leia off this base, Luke _

There was the longest pause from Luke. Leia was viciously amused to feel him failing about, like he actually was nineteen again, as he tried a way to figure out to break Leia to Vader. “_Uhhh,_ _about that_,” then Luke’s mental voice stumbled. _“You might want to know she’s-“_

_“My dau-“ _Vader started to say, and all of Leia’s amusement vanished.

Vader’s mental voice cut off before he could finish the thought. Leia wasn’t sure if it was because of what he was seeing on her face or feeling off of her in the Force, but it was enough to make him stop talking.

Leia could feel a whirlwind of emotion around him, but after a pause, Vader corrected to. “_Leia is your sister,” _his mental voice was devoid of any emotion. Whether it was because he was trying to hide what he thought about that development, or he was in shock, Leia wasn’t sure. _“I am aware.”_

“Finally,” Leia muttered petulantly and had the satisfaction of seeing Vader flinch.

Luke, on the other hand, was a rolling ball of emotions. Leia turned her focus to him, but the second he noticed her attention, he hid all of it away. Something about Vader had said, had caught his attention, and he didn’t want Leia to know what conclusion he had drawn from it.

But Leia _could_ feel the apprehension he couldn’t quite hide. “_Are you going to kill him, Leia?_” Luke asked. Leia was amused to note he made sure Vader had heard him.

That amusement slipped away as she felt Luke’s worry and fear. Leia didn’t understand why Luke loved Vader. But understanding that fact wasn’t what was important here. What was important was not hurting Luke. And Vader dying again, especially at her hands, _would _hurt Luke. He would forgive her, hell, he intimately knew why she _wanted_ to, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t break his heart. Luke had his heart broken by too many people, and Leia wasn’t going to be let herself become one of them, no matter how temporarily satisfying it would be. 

That didn’t mean that was what she was going to tell Luke that now. _Especially_ with Vader listening so intently for her answer.

She let her feel of Vader in the Force really penetrate into her head. There was wariness there, which brought a lick of satisfaction to her. But there was also guilt, shame, and a strong sense of loathing rolling off him. It never would have occurred to her Vader was even capable of feeling any of that, but here they all were.

“_He would let you kill him_,” the Force whispered in her bones. That was an insane thought, Vader was the ultimate survivor. He felt bad now about how he treated her, but he would get over it soon enough.

It was all a moot point anyway. She didn’t want to hurt Luke. And from a tactical standpoint, Vader was her best way out of this cell, and off this station. Nobody, perhaps save Tarkin, would question him if he marched her out of here.

_“No,”_ Leia finally said. _“I’m not going to kill him.”_

_“Really?”_ Luke sounded disbelieving, and behind it, she could feel Vader sharing that sentiment.

Leia rolled her eyes, but she got why he thought she was placating him. Time to tell _part_ of the truth. “_He died to save you, Luke” _Leia said gently to her brother_. “That buys him something. Not much, but _something._” _

Vader’s posture relaxed, fractionally, and she could feel Luke’s relief.

_“Alright,”_ Luke agreed. _“I’ll just head to Yavin-”_

Leia shook her head. _“You don’t have the clearance codes, they will blast you out of the sky. Alderaan, Luke.” _And at that name, Leia was suddenly hit with a wave of hatred and loathing. For the first time since she entered this cell, she could feel the faintest echo of the Dark Side.

She looked up at Vader and hissed. “You harm a hair on my parent’s head, it doesn’t matter what I told Luke, I _will_ kill you_._”

Vader’s shock rolled over her, and then in an instant, all that emotion was gone, as if it had never been. “Lei-, Your Highness,” Vader started to say, but Luke’s voice cut in.

_“What’s going on?”_ Luke asked suspiciously.

How to put this, so he didn’t think she was going back on her word? _“Vader and I are establishing boundaries, Luke.”_

_“Uh-huh.”_ Dammit, he knew her too well to fall for that.

_“We are,” _that voice that was Vader’s, but _not_ Vader’s said. _“Leia misunderstood what I was feeling, and made clear what her concerns were.”_

Oh, there was no way he was making her into the bad guy here._ “How could I misunderstand that?” _Leia demanded. _“You were furious.”_

_“I was not angry at the Organa’s,” _was all he offered.

_“Then who the hell were you angry at?”_ Leia shouted back. She could feel Vader twist away from something, but she couldn’t quite grasp _what._

“_Oh,_” Luke said, as comprehension filled his thoughts. 

“_What_?” Leia demanded, infuriated that there was something going on that she didn’t understand.

_“Leia,” _Luke sounded sad_. “You-“ _Then she could feel his attention split away from them for a second. Before she could panic about that, his focus came back, but his tone was rushed._ “I have to go. Uncle Owen has been trying to get my attention for some time apparently, and he is really worried. I’ll talk to you when I have a ride off this planet.”_

_“Get Obi-Wan before you leave, Luke,” _Vader said, voice reserved._ “We are going to need him for the days ahead.”_

_“That shouldn’t be too hard, he’s here at the farm,” _was Luke’s wry response.

_“Why?” _Vader asked.

_“He thought I was dead too, and came here to avenge me, or something. And now Uncle Owen is turning purple. Gotta go, love you,” _and with that, he was gone.

The silence left in his wake was _excruciating._ Vader stared at Leia, and Leia could feel herself tightening up under his scrutiny.

“Are you going to just stand there and stare at me?” Leia asked.

“I cannot leave this cell,” he said, somewhat stiffly.

Leia scowled. “You are _Darth Vader_. Who is going to stop you?

“I cannot leave this cell because of Tarkin, remember?”

Oh, that was right, he was buying _time._ He wasn’t going to hurt her, no matter what her fear was trying to tell her. She had been a soldier to long not to take rest when it became available, and she was going to need every ounce of strength she had for the foreseeable future. Leia sank down on the bench. She wouldn’t go to sleep, she _couldn’t,_ not with him in the room. But she could sit, and close her eyes, and try to get her mind to rest.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, it had been a while, when his voice cut through her wandering mind.

“I offer my apologies.”

Leia opened her eyes and stared at him for a moment, startled. Was he really going to do this _now?_ “For what?”

He gestured towards her shoulders. “For grabbing you earlier. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Leia snorted. “Let’s be honest, in the list of sins you have committed against me, that is very far down.”

He looked away from her and then back up. “Yes,” he admitted. “But that one should have been avoided. You’re right, once I realized you time traveled, I should have put it together.”

“It’s not like you haven’t had _years _to figure it out,” Leia snapped back. “I’ve seen holos of her, you know. Padme Naberrie. I’m her _spitting_ image.”

“I know,” he said gravely, hands falling behind his back. “It is why I went to such lengths to avoid you.”

“Typical,” Leia muttered. “You bury your head in the sand, and I pay the price.”

“If I had known,“ Vader started to say. “I wouldn’t have-“

“If you didn’t go around torturing people, it wouldn’t have happened in the first place!” Leia hissed back.

“Yes,” he said after a long moment. “You are right about that.”

Leia rubbed her head, as a headache started to build. “Can you please spare us both this conversation?” she pleaded with him. “It’s pointless anyway. I’m not Luke. I am not the forgiving sort.”

“No,” he said slowly. “You are not.”

“Great,” Leia said, closing her eyes again. “Glad we cleared that up.”

By Leia’s internal clock, he waited only fifteen minutes before he was asking another question. “How old are you?”

Leia gritted her teeth. “I’m nineteen,” she said snarkily.

“You know what I meant,” Vader said testily.

“I did,” she confirmed.

“I can always ask Luke,” Vader said.

“Then do that.”

“Would it really be so hard for you to give me this?” Vader’s voice was almost pleading.

Leia narrowed her eyes at him. She had only promised _not_ to kill him. She hadn’t said anything about being nice to him. Especially if it got him to leave her _alone_. “I thought I should give an obvious fact for the one you missed in this very cell.”

He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

She considered him for a moment, wondering if he had genuinely forgotten, or he was playing dumb. “The last time you and I were here, the location of the Rebel base wasn’t the most important secret I was keeping.”

“I don’t understand,” he said.

She smiled, and it was by no means nice. “That doesn’t surprise me. After all, you said it yourself. All that effort to protect the identity of my birth mother was foolish. She was dead and _unimportant_.”

Leia knew the precise second he understood what she was talking about because he recoiled from her like she had set him on _fire._

Satisfied that she had made her point, she turned her head, deliberately not paying attention to what he was doing.

The silence lasted _much_ longer this time, Leia would give herself that. It was coming up on two hours by her internal reckoning when his voice cut through the air again.

“Were you happy?”

“What?” Leia asked, sitting bolt upright, the incongruous nature of the question making her forget her resolve to ignore him. 

She turned to face him. At some point, when she had been deliberately tuning him out, he had sat down on the floor. Well, that made sense. Leia wasn’t the only soldier in this room, after all.

It meant he was eye level with her now, and his mask was trained on her. “Were you happy?” he repeated.

“What are you talking about?” Leia asked

“Before you arrived here, in this time,” and there was a hollow ache in his voice, even through the distortion of the vocoder. “Were you happy?”

Leia blinked. “Why do you care?” she asked, genuinely baffled.

“Because you are my daughter,” he said, and there was something _wrong_ with his voice. 

His words were what cause her to come to her feet though, hissing. “You are not my Papa!”

“I know.” What was wrong with the vocoder? Had she damaged it when she had pushed him away? But that wasn’t right. He had been talking just fine before.

Was he in pain? Leia opened up her outer most walls in the Force, and almost _drowned_ in the pain coming off of him. But this wasn’t being fueled physical pain. It was an ocean of grief and sadness.

Crying. Vader’s voice was distorted because he was crying. Leia knew what to do with a Vader who was angry. One who was weeping was beyond her.

“Yes,” she said, so taken aback that only the truth tumbled from her lips. “For a long time, both Luke and I were.”

“And?” he asked.

“And what?” she snapped, but more wary then angry.

“What changed?”

So many things, most of them could be laid at his feet. But she really wanted him to stop crying, so all she said was. “It all went to hell.”

“I see,” he said. She could feel his mind trying to work the angles, now that he had a problem to solve. All around her, that aching grief retreat from the Force like the tide.

“Is there anything I can do to fix that?” he asked.

Leia let out a bitter laugh. Hell, he had _caused_ most of it. “Do you know a man named Snoke, who is a trained Force user, and where I might find him ?” she asked, for lack of anything better to say. It was pointless anyway, she was already aware of what his answer would be.

“No,” he said thoughtfully.

She shrugged.

He looked at her seriously for a moment, then asked. “Would you like his head?”

Leia’s first reaction was to laugh. That impulse died away as she realized he was _serious_. She had only been half kidding, and he was offering to kill someone he never even met. Granted it was Snoke, but he had no idea who that was, or what he had done to Leia or Leia’s family. 

“I thought you came back to the Light Side,” Leia said _very_ cautiously.

“I have,” he said, tone even. “But it wasn’t the Emperor who taught me how to kill.”

She opened her mouth to deny that, then closed it. He was a soldier, she realized. And one that had served in the Clone Wars, long before he was Vader.

That didn’t make what he was offering right. “Are you seriously offering to _murder_ your way into my affections?”

He shook his head. “No, I am offering to kill someone before they have the chance to hurt you again. I expect nothing from you for it.”

Leia _really_ wished Luke had reached out back to them. She had no idea what to do with a Vader who wasn’t swimming in the Dark Side, but was offering to kill people in the same offhand tone others would use to invite you to dinner.

“Isn’t time you left this cell?” she asked a little desperately.

He seemed to consider that and then nodded. “Yes,” he said, and slowly rose to his feet.

When he was at his full height, he looked down at Leia, but she honestly had nothing to say to him, for good or ill. He shook his head. “I will be back in a few hours,” he said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said sarcastically.

His shoulders sagged, and at his side, his hands balled into fists. Once again, the faintest trace of the Dark Side was in the room.

“What now?” Leia asked.

“It’s not important,” he said, and Leia realized with a start that he just _lied_ to her.

“You and I were enemies,” she said. “But we never bothered to be anything but _honest_ even through that. Don’t change that now. It’s probably the only good quality you have.”

He turned and looked at her. “I intensely dislike leaving my child in a _cell_,” he spat, and Leia was caught off guard by the fact that he was genuinely upset. “But there is nothing to be done about it, so it’s nothing.”

“It’s not _nothing_,” Leia said slowly, horrified to find herself understanding his point. “Just because it can’t be changed doesn’t mean you have to _like _it. Only accept it, and move on.”

He started at her, and Leia got the distinct impression her words carried a lot more meaning then she had intended. But all he said was, “When I come back, I won’t be alone. Act appropriately.”

She sat back down on the bench. “Act like a defiant rebel. I think I can manage.”

He made a growl of frustration. “Act like you are broken.”

Leia frowned. “Why? I didn’t last time.”

“You won last time,” he pointed out.

She stilled, “And paid a heavy price for it.”

She could feel his remorse, but she shook her head. “Go, now is not the time.”

“As you wish,” he said. He reached out a hand, and the droid came to life in a whirl of lights. He made another gesture with his hand, and the door opened as he stalked out of it.

Leia let herself take in her first full breath since he walked into this cell. Well, this was one hell of a turn of events. She was too involved and too tired to even begin to work on how Vader being this Vader changed things. She wondered what other fun surprises the Force would throw at her today. She hoped they were at least marginally better than this one, but given her luck over the last day, she doubted it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So small summary, a few days ago v01db1ad3 asked that I throw up the various Tumblr snippets and stories I have written over the years up on A03. Which I'm in the process of doing. But I came across this one, and by all rights, it belongs here, since it is the teeniest tiniest follow up. I still have NO plans for a real sequel/chapter, but I figured you all would get a kick out of it. 
> 
> jedikali asked:
> 
> Seriously Spoiler: are we going to get a continuation or other possibilities?

“Mon, do you trust me?”

Mon blinked at the unexpected question. Bail looked _shaken_. It had been a trying set of days, but the only time she could recall him looking this lost was in those first days of the Empire.

“You know I do,” she said slowly.

He fidgeted, and Mon’s alarm grew. Bail _never_ fidgeted like that.

“The Death Star has been taken care of,” he said mournfully. The words were _not_ matching his tone. But it would explain the sudden scrambling of all Imperial personnel over the last few hours.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why is that fact troubling you?” She frowned. “Unless you don’t believe it has been?”

“No,” he said with a somewhat hysterical laugh. “I have _no_ doubts it’s been handled.” Then his shoulders slumped and he looked at her, face pale. “But it’s the _who_ and, more importantly, the _why_ this has occurred that frightens me.”

Then there was a loud scream from the other side of the doors. Mon jumped back, then swung a glance at Bail. That voice was still going on. Mon couldn’t hear the words, but the tone was _angry_.

Bail sighed. “I could explain, but you wouldn’t believe me. You are going to have to see for yourself.”

Before she could even ask what that meant, he swung the door open. With that barrier gone, the angry voice became clear enough for Mon to recognize it as Leia’s.

“The _last thing_ in the galaxy I need is your protection!”

Hurridly Mon speed into the room, only to have her feet come to an abrupt stop at the sight before her.

Leia yelling at _Darth Vader. _Not only yelling, but she was also pushing him with each word, as she went on “I can take care of myself!”

Vader was not stopping her but allowing her to _shove _him. All he did in his defense was say, “You are-”

“OLDER THEN YOU!” Leia screamed.

Mon tried to understand what she was looking at when a sharp whistle cut across the room. Both Leia and Vader stopped. Well, Leia stopped. Vader merely was no longer being directed about like a rag doll.

“Hey!” someone shouted. Mon couldn’t take her eyes off the sight in front of her to see who was speaking. “Not that I’m not enjoying seeing Leia chew you out like this, Your Sithness, but we have company.”

Both Leia and Vader turned their heads. Leia immediately flushed. “Mon,” she said in a much more controlled voice. “I didn’t see you there.”

“That’s alright,” Mon found herself saying, etiquette lessons coming to her rescue.

Vader said _nothing, _merely stared at her with the sound of his ventilator filling the room. 

Mon swung her glance around the room to see if anything here would give her an answer to what was going on and found _Obi-Wan Kenobi _standing in the corner next to a slim blonde man.

“_What_?” she demanded, as she looked at Bail.

“As I said, it is something you have to see to believe.”


End file.
